The Prime Minister of Iraq has said a trial of Saddam Hussein for war crimes could start in a month or two.
A stream of such statements from the government, which seems keen to get the former president in the dock before a December election, have already drawn frosty remarks about judicial independence from judges investigating the old regime's crimes.
The eagerness of the Shia and Kurds now running Iraq for a swift trial and possible execution of the man who oppressed them for three decades is also at odds with what some observers say are US preferences for a full-blown war crimes process that could bolster President Bush's justification for invasion.
And lawyers and officials involved in the process said today that Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's comments that a trial could start on August 15th, September 15th, or at any rate within three months, would call for the tightest of legal scheduling.
Tribunal rules stipulate a 45-day delay between a judge referring a case for trial and courtroom proceedings. The referral can only be once an investigation is complete. Tribunal sources have said the investigation might wind up in mid-August.
"If there were a referral today, I suppose a trial could in theory start in mid-August," said one official involved in the judicial process in Baghdad. "But it is improbable."
A month ago, President Jalal Talabani said he hoped a trial could start by late July, which is now impossible if legal forms are to be observed as Saddam's fellow minority Sunni Arabs have been demanding.
Official spokesmen for the Special Tribunal set up under US occupation to try Saddam and his aides were not immediately available for comment. Nor was Saddam's attorney.
But a lawyer for Tareq Aziz, his former deputy prime minister, said when asked about Jaafari's August date: "No. A thousand times No. They can't do it, not even in September.
"I even doubt they can do it this year. It is very, very difficult. The investigation needs time. This talk is not about legal facts. It is political rhetoric," lawyer Badea Aref said.
Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said more cautiously last week that Saddam could go on trial by the end of the year.
Saddam and 11 of his top lieutenants are being held at a U.S. military camp at Baghdad airport and officials say a special courtroom is nearly completed in the fortified compound in the city center that once housed his presidential palaces.